The price tag for the three spacecraft is $1.99 billion.
NASA made the new Orion order via the Orion Production and Operations Contract,"an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for up to 12 vehicles," Lockheed Martin representatives wrote in the same statement.
NASA previously ordered three Orion capsules via this contract in 2019. The agency could therefore order six more in the future if it so chooses. Together, NASA and Lockheed Martin have reduced Orion costs significantly over the years. The spacecraft built for Artemis missions three through five are 50% cheaper than those put together during Orion's design and development stage, Lockheed Martin representatives said. The three newly ordered capsules will be 30% cheaper still.
"We're achieving substantial cost savings from Artemis 3 through Artemis 8 by extensive structure and system reuse and incorporating advanced digital design and manufacturing processes," Tonya Ladwig, Orion vice president and program manager at Lockheed Martin Space, said in the same statement. "The Artemis 2 vehicle will reuse select avionics from the Artemis 1 crew module, and that reuse will continue to dramatically increase to where the Artemis 3 pressure vessel capsule will be entirely refurbished for the Artemis 6 mission," Ladwig added." , a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter
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